The echo of last year’s farmers’ agitation still rings in Dibdiba, the biggest village of Bilaspur constituency in Rampur that voted on Monday in the second phase of elections in Uttar Pradesh. Navreet Singh from the village was one of the 700 casualties of the year-longagitation.
“The politicians might have forgotten Navreet, but we haven’t,” said Balkar Singh, an elderly farmer sitting at the village corner.
The farmers were anguished that the BJP candidate and a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, Baldev Singh Aulakh didn’t care to visit the family. “Later, he tried but we denied him entry to the village,” said Mr. Singh.
“It was around the same time of the day that I got a call from Delhi that Navreet is no more,” said a pensive Paramjeet Kaur, looking at the vast expanse of the family’s wheat fields, lush in the afternoon sun. Her only son was killed when the tractor he was driving allegedly overturned on Republic Day when the farmers’ agitation turned violent on the streets of Delhi.
While the Delhi Police said the incident took place when the 25-year-old lost control of the vehicle, Ms. Kaur maintained it was a case of murder. “He was shot dead. There were clear entry and exit wounds of the bullet at the chin and behind the ear lobe,” she said. “He had a licence to drive a heavy vehicle in Australia. How could he lose control of a tractor?” she asked.
Inderjeet Singh, Navreet’s uncle who was in Delhi at the time of the incident, said government doctors and officials in Rampur were under tremendous pressure to paint the “murder as an accident.”
“We have filed a case and we hope justice will be done in due course. Right now, we are appealing to people to defeat the BJP,” said Mr. Inderjeet.
Returned from Australia
He said several farmers from the region joined the protest at the Ghazipur border in December 2020. “We were clear from the beginning that the BJP was fulfilling the corporate agenda by bringing the farm laws. My father was at the protest site adjoining the Rajasthan border and Navreet who had just returned from Australia had a good idea about the agenda behind the farm laws.”
Farmers said the BJP had tried to distract from the issue for a long time. “It is only when the BJP failed to divide us between big and small that the PM decided to repeal the laws,” said Mr. Inderjeet.
The farm workers, he said, had their own issues with the government. “The Hindu worker in my field is worried as he can no longer sell his aged cow and has to feed her fodder that costs ₹1,500- 2,000 a quintal.”
Residents said Tejinder Singh Virk, who was seriously injured in the Lakhimpur vehicle ramming episode, was their leader. “He had been with the Samajwadi Party but somehow the party didn’t find him suitable and put faith in Amrajeet Singh. Had Virk been given a chance, the contest would have been one-sided,” said Parminder Singh. Now, he said, it was a triangular contest because the Congress candidate former MLA Sanjay Kapoor is also a formidable candidate.
Adjoining the Rudrapur constituency of Uttarakhand, the discontent in Bilaspur, farmers said, would affect the voting pattern in the neighbouring State as well. “Recently, PM Modi’s rally drew fewer crowds because a local BJP turncoat who has stood as Independent had called a public meeting around the same time,” said Mr. Inderjeet, adding the impact of farmers’ agitation would also be felt in Himachal Pradesh elections as the apple farmers were being cheated by a corporate player because of the government’s backing.
“If the BJP somehow returns to power and decides to bring back the laws, we will return to the Delhi borders. The sacrifice of Navreet will not go waste,” said his teenage cousin.
However, less than a kilometre ahead, Krishnapal Sharma, a small grocery store owner in the village said, “ Masjid ki jagah mandir aa gaya, aur kya chahiye? (A temple has come in place of a mosque, what more do you want?)“ Asked about the farmers’ concerns, he said: “Issue is there, the death was unfortunate, but it is a problem of big farmers.”
